Shortly before the 1900s began, 20 years of work concluded on the magnificent structure that became Toronto?s third city hall.

Over a century later this intricate arrangement of grey and brown stones from Ontario and New Brunswick is known as Old City Hall. In 1965, when it made way for the more current, futuristic-looking seat of municipal government, Old City Hall became a provincial courthouse, which it remains.

Edward James Lennox, the nineteenth-century architect who designed the castle-like building also built Toronto?s resident palace, Casa Loma, Mount Pleasant Cemetery and the west wing of Queen?s Park.

Lennox worked himself into the structure. He appears as one of several gargoyle-like faces above a stand of columns at the building?s entrance. Lennox appears sagely and dignified while the other faces, representing politicians he disliked, seem foolish and grotesque.

At one point faced with demolition, Old City Hall was declared a heritage site in 1989.